A grant of land made by Spain to a settler in the Americas, including the right to use Native Americans as laborers on it.

MESTIZO

A person of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry.

COLONY

A land controlled by another nation.

PILGRIMS

A group of people who, in 1620, founded the colony of Plymouth in Massachusetts to escape religious persecution in England.

CONQUISTADOR

The Spanish soldiers, explorers, and fortune hunters who took part in the conquest of the Americas in the 16th century.

ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

The buying, transporting, and selling of Africans for work in the Americas.

TRIANGULAR TRADE

The transatlantic trading network along which slaves and other goods were carried between Africa, England, Europe, the West Indies, and the colonies in the Americas.

MIDDLE PASSAGE

The voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies, and later to North and South America, to be sold as slaves-so called because it was considered the middle leg of the triangular trade.

COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

The global transfer of plants, animals, and diseases that occurred during the European colonization of the Americas.

CAPITALISM

An economic system based on private ownership and on the investment of money in business ventures in order to make a profit.

BALANCE OF TRADE

(favorable) An economic situation in which a country sells more goods abroad than it buys from abroad.

ABSOLUTISM

A government system in which it has a ruler with absolute power.

DIVINE RIGHT

The idea that monarchs are God's representatives on earth and are therefore answerable only to God.

PARLIAMENT

A body of representatives that makes laws for a nation.

GEOCENTRIC THEORY

In the Middle Ages, the earth-centered view of the universe in which scholars believed that the earth was an immovable object located at the center of the universe.

HELIOCENTRIC THEORY

The idea that the earth and the other planets revolve around the sun.

ENLIGHTMENT

An 18th century European movement in which thinkers attempted to apply the principles of reason and the scientific method to all aspects of society.

PHILOSOPHE

One of a group of social thinkers in France during the Enlightment.

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

A major change in European thought, starting in the mid-1500s, in which the study of the natural world began to be characterized by careful obervation and the questioning of accepted beliefs.

GLORIOUS REVOLUTION

The bloodless overthrow of the English king James II and his replacement by William and Mary.

RESTORATION

The period of Charles II's rule over England, after the collapse of Oliver Cromwell's government.

ESTATES

The three social classes in France before the French Revolution:

-The First Estate consisting of the clergy

-The Second Estate, of the nobility

-The Third Estate, of the rest of the population.

CONGRESS OF VIENNA

A series of meetings in 1814-1815, during which the European leaders sought to establish long-lasting peace and security after the defeat of Napoleon.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

A French congress established by representatives of the Third Estate on June 17, 1789, to enact laws and reforms in the name of the French people.

SKEPTISCISM

A philosophy based on the idea that nothing can be known for certain.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

A Genoese sea captain, he was looking forward to reach India by going to the west, but instead he stepped onto an island of the Caribbean.

FERDINAND MAGELLAN

A Portuguese explorer who led the boldest exploration. He sailed around the southern end of South America and into the water of the Pacific.

LOUIS XIV

The most powerful ruler in French history. He was only 14 years old when he became his reign.

PHILLIP II

Son of Charles V. He inherited Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the American colonies. He was shy, serious, and deeply religious. He was very hard working.

JOHN LOCKE

A philosopher who had positive view of human nature. He believed that people could learn from experience and improve themselves, also that they have natural ability to govern their own affairs.

MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE

A Jacobin leader who slowly gained power. He and his supporters set out to build a "republic of virtue" by wiping out every trace of France's past.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

The author of the Declaration of Independece. He was from Virginia and was a political leader. He was based on the ideas of John Locke and supported free speech, religious freedon, and other civil liberties.

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS

A Polish cleric and astronomer who was the first to state the heliocentric theory. After studying the planetary movements for more than 25 years, he concluded that the sun was in the center of the universe and the planets revolved around it in circles.

PETER THE GREAT

In 1696 he became sole ruler of Russia after sharing the throne with his half-brother. He was one of the greatest reformers and he also continued the trend of increasing the czar's power.

GALILEO GALILEI

An Italian scientist. In 1609, he built his own telesocpe. In 1610, he published a small book "Starring Messenger," in which he described his observations: Jupiter has 4 moons and that the sun has dark spots.

VOLTAIRE

The most brilliant and influental of the philosophes. His real name is Francois Marie Aouet.He published more than 70 books of political essays, philosophy, and drama.

ISAAC NEWTON

An English scientist who explained the Law of Gravity. His great discovery was that the same force ruled motion of the planets and all matter on earth and in space. In 1687, he published a book called "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy," it was one of the most important scientific books ever written

JOHANNES KEPLER

A German mathematician who concluded that certain mathematical laws govern planetary motion. He realized that the planets revolved around the sun in elliptical orbits.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

He was born in 1769 on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. When the Revolution broke out, Napoleon joined the army of the new government. He became the hero of the hour and was hailed throughout Paris as the savior of the French republic. He made himself emperor and the French voters supported him.

KLEMENS VON METTERNICH

He was the foreign minister of Austria. He distrusted the democratic ideals of the French Revolution. His three goals at the Congress of Vienna were, first, to prevent future French agression by surrounding France with strong countries, second, he wanted to restore a balance of power so that no country would be threat to others, and third, he wanted to restore Europe's royal families to the thrones they had held before Napoleon's conquest.

MONTESQUIEU

An influential French writer. He devoted himself to the study of political liberty.